Below you’ll find a sample of the first lesson in the Gemara Berachot course.
Gemara Berachot Lesson 1 (Berachot 26a) – The first Mishnah and section and Gemara
Below you’ll find a sample of the first lesson in the Gemara Berachot course.
Gemara Berachot Lesson 1 (Berachot 26a) – The first Mishnah and section and Gemara
Below you’ll find a sample of the first lesson in the Chumash Shemot course.
Beshalach Lesson 1 (Shemot 15:22) – Leaving Yam Suf
We are very excited to announce that expert Torah and technology educator Rabbi Jonathan Simons has agreed to serve as the first Kitah Classroom teacher. Rabbi Simons is an experienced Torah teacher and is also a trained consultant in educational technology. Most importantly, he recognizes the importance of connecting with his students and giving them the best possible learning experience. You can read Rabbi Simons’ bio on our Staff Page.
With Rabbi Simons’ position secured, we are very excited to officially open registration for the 5781 Kitah Classroom.
Dates and Schedule:
The first Kitah Classroom class begins on Monday, September 7th, 2020. (We know that this is Labor Day in the United States, but remember that all KITAH classroom lessons are asynchronous. While the lessons will be assigned on Monday, your child can study at any time throughout the week.)
Courses:
The first class will study two courses weekly:
1. Chumash Shemot with Rabbi Johnny Solomon
2. Mishnah Berachot with Rabbi Reuven Spolter
Each course is twenty weekly lessons. With the completion of those courses, students will begin new classes.
Cost:
Kitah Classroom is priced with families in mind. The cost is $99 per month per family.
To register your children please fill out the contact form here, and we’ll be in touch!
We’re looking forward to seeing your children in the classroom!
For Immediate Release:
Contact Information:
Rabbi Reuven Spolter, Founder and Director
Email: spolter@kitah.org
Tel: +972-54-220-4347, (US number in Israel: +1-347-434-9212)
Kitah, a new Online Jewish Education Initiative, to Help Schools Weather the COVID Crisis
KITAH unveils an exciting online Jewish Education platform to help Jewish Day schools and Jewish parents address the uncertainty they will face over the coming year.
YAD BINYAMIN, ISRAEL – Last March, when the COVID crisis struck shutting down cities and communities around the world, schools scrambled to shift to distance learning. Teachers and students adapted to Zoom classes and virtual schedules, utilizing online teaching resources to bring their students meaningful learning experiences.
Teachers quickly realized that they could not expect the same level of attention and focus from their students in Zoom lessons that they did in person. Judaic teachers discovered that while their counterparts on the “secular” side could access a wide range of digital teaching resources, very little ready-made online Jewish material was available for their own instruction.
“It was a struggle,” said Adina Blaustein, a high school Tanach teacher at the Fuchs Mizrachi School in Cleveland, OH. “I couldn’t just email a worksheet and expect the students to manage on their own. And there simply was no available digital teaching material that we could easily assign our students.”
Recognizing this need, a group of English-speaking Jewish educators built an online educational platform aimed at giving Jewish studies teachers powerful digital educational tools.
Titled Kitah (which means “class” in Hebrew”), the platform is modeled after the world-famous Khan Academy “flipped classroom”. In a “flipped” classroom, teachers assign students lessons via YouTube which they watch on their own. When the students meet in class, a teacher can follow-up, enhancing and expanding on what the students have already learned.
Kitah is built on this innovative educational model. However, instead of teaching math or science, Kitah focuses on classic Jewish subjects including Chumash, Navi, Mishnah and Gemara. Courses combine YouTube videos prepared by seasoned Jewish studies teachers with Google Forms, making the lessons easy for teachers to use in classrooms around the world.
“We built Kitah to allow teachers to assign home-based study focusing on skills and text reading,” explains Rabbi Reuven Spolter, founder and director of Kitah. “A student can watch a lesson once, or as many times as needed, in order to answer the included questions.” This allows students the time and focus they need to properly understand the Hebrew text, greatly enhancing and improving the classroom experience later on. “A teacher does not have to start from scratch. Students enter the classroom having been exposed to the basic meaning of the text, allowing teachers to focus on broader themes and deeper lessons they otherwise might not address.”
This coming school year, with the significant possibility of further community closures, Kitah offers schools the peace of mind that, should they need to shift to distance learning, they will have digital Jewish studies lessons ready to deploy.
“While we did not build Kitah because of the COVID crisis,” explained Rabbi Johnny Solomon, Kitah’s educational director, “Our platform is certainly an important option for schools looking for Jewish online learning tools.”
Spolter agrees. “In the end, we know that we’ve built a tool that will help Jewish children learn and connect to classic Jewish texts. If we can help Jewish schools and teachers weather this incredibly challenging time, that will be an added bonus.”
For more information about Kitah, contact Rabbi Reuven Spolter or visit their website, Kitah.org.
Below you’ll find a sample of the first lesson in the Megillat Rut course.
Course Name: Courage and Kindness in Megillat Rut
Course Teacher: Mrs. Adina Blaustein
Course Details: Sefer Rut
Chapters & Verses: Chapters 1-4
Number of lessons: 20
For Grades: 6-8
General Course Description: In this course, students will learn Megillat Rut. The study will be focused around the following essential question: What is the true meaning of Chesed?
Students will learn about the protagonists through this lens, understanding that Ruth, Boaz and Naomi are heroic in their embodiment of this trait. Students will grow more comfortable reading text in the original Hebrew and using text to support key ideas.
The student will learn the following skills during this course:
The student will learn the following Judaic knowledge:
The student will understand:
Detailed Lesson Plans: A detailed lesson plan list is coming soon
Sample Lesson:
We are excited to present a sample of the first lesson in Megillat Rut. You can progress through the lesson to get a sense of how we present and organize Kitah materials. To access the sample lesson click here.
Course Name: The Journey from Egypt
Course Teacher: Rabbi Johnny Solomon
Course Details: Sefer: Shemot
Part 3 (Parshat Beshalach)
Chapters & Verses: Ch. 15:22-16:26
For Grades: 6-8
General Course Description: In this course, students will learn about the fascinating journey of Am Yisrael from Yam Suf to Marah, Elim & Sin.
The student will learn the following skills during this course:
The student will learn the following Judaic knowledge:
The student will understand:
Number of lessons: 20
Detailed Lesson Plans: A detailed lesson plan list is coming soon
Sample Lesson:
We are excited to present a sample of the first lesson in Chumash Shemot. You can progress through the lesson to get a sense of how we present and organize Kitah materials. To access the sample lesson click here.
Below you’ll find a sample of the first lesson in the Mishnah Berachot course.
Lesson 1: Chapter 1 Mishnah 1 Lesson 1: Why Do we Recite Shema at Night?
Understanding the first chapter of Shema is the key to explaining why we recite Shema at all, and why specifically at night.
Course Name: Meet the Mishnah – Masechet Berachot
Course Teacher: Rabbi Reuven Spolter
Course Details: Mishnah Masechet Berachot Chapters 1 and 2
For Grades: 5-8
The student will learn the following skills during this course:
The student will learn the following Judaic knowledge:
The student will understand:
Number of lessons: 20
Course Description: For a complete course curriculum, click here
Sample Lesson:
We are excited to present a sample lesson from Mishnah Berachot. You can progress through the lesson to get a sense of how we present and organize Kitah materials. To access the sample lesson click here.